Nothing To Lose
by Kare Uta
Summary: A oneshot based on the song 'Nothing To Lose' By Billy Talent. I protest against bullying, lots of angst so I'm warning you. Tala witnesses someone being bullied, see for yourself what happens.


Tala arrived to his first class of the school term, settling in a seat at the back of the room. Looking around the room from where he sat, he took in each student that was seated in the classroom. The people he'd be spending most of his school hours with for the next few months or so. The desks where set up in rows and closest to the front of each was probably the students where out to want to learn the most from their class, whereas at the back of the class where the students who, to say the least couldn't be bothered much about the class.

**_Need more friends with wings,  
All the angels I know put concrete in my veins,  
I'd always walk home alone,  
So I became lifeless just like my telephone._**

Tala's eyes fell on one form in particular. Someone who sat in the middle of one of the rows to his left. He leaned back in his chair so the person behind him could hear him speak in his whispered voice, "Who's that?" he asked him. The boy behind was the same age as him with short dark brown hair. He'd been at the school much longer than Tala had been since it was Tala's first day but he'd met the boy, Matt, when both where late and running down the hall together to their class.

Matt leaned forward in his seat a bit to be closer to where Tala could hear him and quietly replied, "No one really knows actually. He was introduced as 'Andy Turner' he moved here with his dad about a month ago. No one knows anything about him though, he keeps to himself and we all like it that way."

"You don't know _anything_ about him?" Tala asked, a bit of shock in his voice.

"Aside from the fact that people tease him about his sense of style, no."

Tala turned back to looking at the mysterious student. Matt was right though, the student Andy, didn't wear anything special, more like just plain dull. He'd been wearing a pair of black baggy jeans and a black sweatshirt with a hood pulled over his head. His hands gripped a pencil tightly in his hands while he sketched something on the corner of his notebook as he listened to the lesson intently.

**_There's nothing to lose,  
When no-one knows your name,  
There's nothing to gain,  
But the days don't seem to change._**

"Weird guy." Tala muttered, sitting forward in his seat again.

Tala tried to pay attention to the lesson the whole time but only found it all boring, geography was always boring to him so being stuck in the lesson was just a chance to get some sleep. A forty minute lesson finished quickly, mostly because his mind was just wandering to…well just about anything that got him to think away from class. The class ended and Matt said that his next class was away from Tala's so he'd see him later. Tala stayed sitting in his place till he could be bothered to get up and walk down the hall. On the way there he saw Andy in the hall, Tala said nothing to him and just walked past him without a thought in his head.

He settled into a seat in his biology class, a bit of confusion on his face when he saw that the boy was in his class again. He watched the boy sit in the seat beside his, everyone staring at Andy as though he had done something wrong just by walking into class. Andy didn't acknowledge Tala's existence, just opened his book and started sketching patterns along the side of the pages. Neither said a word to each other throughout the lesson, when Tala wasn't paying attention he'd knocked his pen off the desk. He was about to go to pick it up but seemed like he was beat to it. Andy reached down and picked up the fallen object, handing it out to Tala again.

Tala looked up at Andy first, seeing Andy's face lowered so he couldn't see much of his face because of the hood. He took the pen out of the open palm and whispered a thank you. The boy beside him just nodded a bit and turned back to his sketching, resting his head in his hand as he watched his pen line the edges of the page.

**_Never played truth or dare,  
I'd have to check my mirror to see if I'm still here,  
My parents had no clue,  
That I ate all my lunches alone in the bathroom._**

Before Tala knew it the second lesson was over and now he was starting to think that this school thing was going to be easy to get through, what with the lessons passing by so quickly and all. He walked out to the yard, meeting Matt there as the sat down at a table for lunch. The boy he'd been thinking about so much for the past few lessons was no where to be seen, which was worrying and irritating that no one knew anything about him. Tala was more than confused about the boy now, realizing that this guy was more than just a mystery to this place but he was a ghost. Everyone went on with their usual lives as though this guy didn't exist to them, as if he was never around them.

**---Next Day--- **

As the day before, Tala was late for school but thankfully wasn't caught running down the hall to class. In fact, he had company. Andy was walking quite calmly behind Tala when entering the school gates.

"Morning." Tala tried to greet. He wasn't normally like this, greeting someone in the morning at least, he just wanted to see if he could get a few words out of the boy that walked with him to class. That gesture didn't work much though because Andy seemed a bit more hesitant now and just nodded a bit in reply, his eyes cast on the ground as he tightened his grip on his backpack's strap.

Tala just shrugged it off a bit as they walked into class, just thinking the other teenager was shy or something. The two apologized for being late. Well…more like Tala apologized for being late, Andy just stood behind not even making eye contact with the teacher before nodding with apology and walking to his seat at the back of the class. The class seemed to have given him very little importance on the whole but gave him enough importance to stare at him with looks of disgust on their faces. This was easily noticeable, especially to someone like Tala. He'd had years of being stared at for being some twisted man's experiment and he knew that being looked at like that didn't feel any good.

From where Tala still stood he looked around at the class, seeing that the only empty seat was the one beside Andy again. It seemed like no one dared sit next to him. Tala sighed and walked over to the empty seat, dropping his bag onto the ground and began pretending to be interested in the lesson. A small torn of paper was slid in front of him, Tala took a quick look at it, the words 'I'm Sorry' being written there in a small neat handwriting.

The owner of that particular handwriting was Andy and Tala could tell since the book that had been open was filled with the handwriting. Tala picked up a pen and answered back, 'What for?'

'For having to sit next to me. Now everyone's staring.'

'So? Let them stare. It's no big deal.'

'It was always a big deal with everyone else.'

'Well I'm not everyone else am I?'

Andy hesitated to answer after reading that message but just wrote down, 'No.' and slid it over to Tala again.

'Good.' Tala was quick to reply and didn't too much mind talking to the boy beside him. The kid wasn't so bad, despite what others around him said. Although, he hadn't even heard the guy speak before, wondering that maybe the guy was a mute or something of the sort.

'Why don't you talk?' He wrote down quickly, while trying to pretend to be paying attention to what the teacher was saying as the man at the end of the room occasionally looked over at Tala with angry eyes, realizing that he probably wasn't paying attention to a word he was saying.

'Do I have to?'

'I never said that.'

**_There's nothing to lose  
When no one knows your name  
There's nothing to gain  
But the days don't seem to change  
There's nothing to lose  
My notebook will explain  
There's nothing to gain  
And I can't fight the pain  
_**

Before Andy to could write an answer back the bell rang and he quickly shoved his pencil case back into his bag, swung the backpack over his shoulder and ran out the class room door like everyone else.

Tala sighed in some annoyance and followed everyone else out of the room, seeing no sign of the other boy so he just figured he had ran down the hall. He just shrugged slightly once he had finally got out of the class, then walked down the hall to his next class. He

He entered the next classroom, eyes widening just slightly on seeing Andy in the class again. Was this guy in _all_ Tala's classes? Tala shook his head of thoughts and just moved to the last vacant seat at the back of the class. He saw Andy raise his head slightly too look at Tala and once the redhead looked up at the mysterious boy, he instantly turned away.

Tala smirked slightly, the guy was probably just shy or something so he didn't think anything of the way he had acted. He didn't bother to look on at the mysterious boy in the other row and stopped thinking about the boy completely, turning his attention back to the lecturer. Occasionally, he turned too look at Andy after a while, seeing Andy resting his chin on his forearm while still sketching on his notebook and it seemed like that was all the boy did and as the lesson progressed, so did the picture on the corners of the book.

Before they knew it the next lesson ended and everyone left the classroom. Tala stopped in the doorway, looking back at the last person who was still in the classroom. Andy didn't move a muscle, just pretending he hadn't heard the bell ring. Tala shrugged, turned, and left the classroom and went outside for his break.

**_Teachers said "it's just a phase"  
When I grow up my children  
Will probably do the same  
Kids just love to tease  
Who'd know it put me underground at age seventeen  
At seventeen_**

Andy knelt down on the ground, leaning against the side of the lockers and next to a door. He kept the sketchbook on his knees and continued sketching along the pages of his book, secretly, a picture forming on the page. Then he heard footsteps coming his way from down the hall. He stood up slowly, holding his book close to his body as his heartbeat raced wildly in fear. Andy tried to walk straight past them but the blonde girl and the boy beside her wouldn't let him pass. They backed him up against the lockers as the blonde girl, clearly the one in charge, dropped her bag to the ground and got right in Andy's face and soon enough, the rest of the blonde's group decided to join in on tormenting the boy, all of them tossing Andy around as though he were worth nothing at all.

While one boy rammed Andy up into a wall, the others picked up the book that had fallen to the floor, everyone looking through Andy's private writings and sketched pictures of his own feelings. Tears built in Andy's eyes as some rage and fear burnt in his heart as the whole group made fun of him and he pulled away from the lockers and tried to get his book back but the group wasn't so quick to give it back to him.

In the meantime, Tala had walked back into the hallway, outside getting colder and colder and something dragged at his existence to go back inside, where he stood by the door, eyes widening in absolute shock at the sight that unfolded in front of him.

It all grew far too much for Andy though and anyone could tell but the bullies didn't care enough to help him. Andy was pushed back again and while feeling too bad, he just turned and ran down the hall, racing past Tala, far enough to be able not to hear the calls of torture and abuse that he got from the bullies who'd tormented him for so long.

**_There's nothing to lose  
When no one knows your name  
There's nothing to gain  
But the days don't seem to change  
There's nothing to lose  
My notebook will explain  
There's nothing to gain  
And I can't fight the pain  
There's nothing to lose  
When no one knows your name  
There's nothing to gain  
But the days don't seem to change  
There's nothing to lose  
My notebook will explain_******

He grabbed the bar handle of one of the doors that led to the mechanic class beneath the school. He ran to the car at the end of the class, the car that was by itself, away from the others. Andy stopped for only a moment, still not even catching his breath as he took another break for the tool box that was beside the car. Picking up a pipe and car keys, he ran to his test car, the one he'd worked on when in that class. He fixed the pipe to the exhaust pipe in the back and rolled down slightly the window of the back seat, putting in the other end of the pipe. He hurried into the car, starting it up quickly but still keeping it in park, then, the exhaust passed through the pipe and into the car.

Andy sat back in his seat; being sure that no place in the car was open for a place where the exhaust could leave from. Sobs racked at his slender frame and he stared on at the staring wheel as his lungs took in the airborne poison that was about to kill him. His vision slowly faded out before it adjusted again but it hazed up again within seconds. Then finally his head slammed down against the steering wheel as he ran out of hope and desire to breathe clear again.

Tala ran downstairs into the garage, being sure that the boy had gone down there. He'd given the bullies one hell of a beating for what they had done to the other teenager. He'd also recovered the notebook which was currently clutched tightly in his hand, also being sure that he hadn't seen what was inside. He finally heard the car that had its engine running and ran right up to it, peering inside the frosted window where he could see Andy collapsed on the steering wheel and his heart skipped a beat. He hurried and opened the car door, pulling out Andy's form and bringing it gently to the ground. And that's when he finally saw what was beneath the hood…the face of a pale seventeen year old girl!

Tala tried his best to get Andy breathing again, despite the utter shock he was in. So was it possible no one knew that this person was a girl the whole time? Or, maybe the bullies only knew because they were the only ones who dared go up to him…well, her more like it. But in the end, he'd been too late. He'd witnessed someone getting bullied and wasn't able to do much, then he watched as the tormented soul of a seventeen year old girl just slip from the grasp of life, the life that Andrea 'Andy' Turner had held onto for so long.

**_There's nothing to lose  
When no one knows your name  
There's nothing to gain  
And I just died today _**

****

**A/N: So sad to actually right that. Well, I wrote it as sort of a message to people. Don't be like Tala, don't just sit back and witness something like that because you never know what will happen next if you don't act quickly. Please, for the sake of all those that have actually died this way. **

**This song doesn't belong to me, the video and song and main idea of this fic came from the band, Billy Talent and the song and video is for 'Nothing To Lose' one of the saddest videos you will ever see, but most likely the one that will reach out to you the most. **

**Please review this fic but more than anything, it'll be better if you learn something from it and put what you've learnt to the test. Hope you enjoyed this, please review! **


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